Method of treating milk



Mar. 6, 1923.

J. M. W. KITCHEN METHOD OF TREATING MILK Fil ed Dec IN l/E/VTOR and,

Patented Mar. 6, 1923.

v entree stares JOSEPH MOSES WARD KITCHEN,

or EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF TREATING MILK.

Application filed December 9, 1918. Serial No. 265,882.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH MOSES WARD KITCHEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of East Orange, county of Essex, State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Method of Treating Milk, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to secure safety and wholesomeness, as well as digestive suitability in 7 milk, especially that which is intended for infant feeding, that will be better than what is:found in milk treated in the methods of the prior art. In detail, this aimed for superiority consists in the following particulars:

1st: that there has in the milk due to ferment or chemical changes in the constituents of the milk.

2nd that no accumulation has occurred in the milk of ferment-putrefactive or other products due to fermentation of any kind.

3rd: that the milk is entirely free from living pathogenic bacteria; and is so free from a living content of non-pathogenic germs that their presence is of negligible importance.

4th that the milk is entirely free from the diffused poisons due to the destruction of germs that proliferate in milk after the production of the milk at temperatures ranging between F. and 100 F. or over.

5th: that the milk shall have been modified so as to measurably approximate in similitude to human milk, both as to the amounts of increasing its several nutritive constituents and as to it digestibility by ,flocculating the milk.

6th: that the milk may have been somewhat dehydrated prior to its transportation to market, and preferably, under anon-coagulative heat and a less than atmospheric pressure.

7th that the milk shall have been hermeti' cally sealed before conveyance to market and been conveyed to market in a state ofsubstantially non-fermentative temperature;

8th: that the milk shall be free from a considerable amount of the infections that frequently occur'during the final home preparation of the milk for immediate consumption.

In other words, the application of my method avoids or eliminates the defects that have always been more or less present in raw, pasteurized,- so-called certified, dried,

been no nutritive loss or elsewhere, are

orifice. The heating,

condensed andevaporated marketed milks, as previously treated. This improvement isefi'ectuated at a reduction in cost of the milk to the consumer below the cost of grades of milk of the most to marketed.

esteemed character hither- This result is secured in part, by carrying out the following combination of Steps:

1st: All reasonable effort is exerted in securing a cleanly production of the milk by methods well known, tho not requiring some of the expensive procedures practiced in producing so-called certified milk.

2nd: A special milk treating plant is provided, which is preferablylocated in close proximity to or sufliciently-close to the point of production of the milk to insure a delivery of the miIk at the treating plant within two hours after its production; and certainly, before the milk has undergone any fermentation. A more distantly located treating and distributing plant necessitates the conveyance of the milk to the plant in a non-fermentative state of temperature. At this treating and distributing plant the milk is treated as follows: It, with or without modification, is heated to and held at, or approximating to, or considerably lower than at a pasteurizing temperature; and during its heating, the volatile difi'usive ferment putrefactive products originating in the cow eliminated from the milk, and preferably, without subjecting the milk to free aerial contact. Coincidently, the milk may be somewhat dehydrated, tho not to a degree that will prevent the concentrated milk from easily pouring from a container having a moderately small pouring eliminating and concentrating are preferably efi'ected in a partial vacuum, and at a temperature not higher than, or prolonged beyond a time that is needed to secure pasteurization of the milk, because it-is wellto heat the milk as little as may be required. Inasmuch as the development of bacteria and bacterial prodcuts in milk is objectionable, my method. avoids exposure of the milk to aerial contact to a great degree and hence avoids the encouragement of the growth of some bacteria that may be in the milk. ent application I am claiming the use of a vacuum exhaust and moderate degrees of heat that will avoid damage to the milk. As the elimination of the volatile contaminants in milk thru the aid of heat, reduces In the pres- .of milk from the container.

the water content of the milk, the present invention includes the addition of enough water to the milk before the heating of the milk to make good the amount carried off in the vapor from the milk during its heating, if purified whole milk is to be marketed and if its purification is effected under a partial vacuum; or else, if-the milk be considerably dehydrated, it is then marketed as a condensed article.

3rd: If dehydrated, the concentrated milk is now placed in the transporting final container, which is hermetically sealed against infecting contaminations. The container preferably used is of glass, and preferably, is of a size to contain only enough milk to nourish an infant for twenty four hours. I aim at freshness in the milk .to prevent growth of undestroyed germs that survive pasteurization; for no pasteurized milk can be known to be absolutely sterile. In general form, has a moderately small orifice, and a rounded bottom. The object 'of this form of bottom, besides ease in thorough cleaning, is to discourage those using the milk from leaving the container open during the intermissions between successive pourings from the container, and hence subject to aerial infect-ions when not closed. Sectional measuring indicators or calibrating marks are blown on the bottle for convenience in securing the pouring of definite amounts from the bottle. The closure preferred is a stopper of cork that has been sterilized in and coated with heated paraffine. This stopper should be tightly replaced after each pouring; and this allows of the container-bottle being laid on its side on ice, or in the ice chest, without loss After the stopper is in place, the stopper part of the closure of the filled bottle and the pouring lip of the bottle, are dipped into very hot melted paraffine and then encased in a fiexible metal capsule which protects the closure exteriorly from infections. 7

lth: The container and its contents is then subjected to a further heating sufficient to destroy the usual infections that usually occur in milk and those that may occur to the milk in the bottling process. This procedure can be conveniently performed in an enclosed apartment provided with both steam heating and brine cooling means. After its heating, the milk is cooled to near its freezing point, and is held at that temperature until the shipment of the milk to market. This deep chilling of the milk has for its object to prevent proliferation of any undestroyed residue of germs in the milk that may-survive pasteurizationfl and also to store an available considerable source of refrigerative-infiuence in the milk itself.

5th: The milk in the sealed container is the container is elongated,

be limited to a standardization of preferably conveyed lined insulated enclosed cases having suffioient depth to allow for the placing of finely comminuted ice on and above the con-' tainers.

Milk treated in this manner has not been subjected to the damaging ferment preservative influences usually applied in canning milk; but it can be known when delivered to the consumer to be in a substantially perfect state of preservation, as well as being devoid of dangerous or menacing infections and contaminations, fora much longer time of holding than ordinary bottled milk is usually held. The method contemplates a daily delivery of milk freshly prepared, of the character herein described.

The milk may be treated without modification; but preferably if for infant feeding, it has some modifying preparation and admixture, such for instance as hydrated dextrinized barley flour, before it is heated. It will be obvious that the modification may an 111-, creased cream content of the milk, while the addition of flocculating matters such as baroatmeal, whey albumen, etc, may be added at the house of the consumer. By effecting the treatment at or close to the point of producing the milk, a very considerable amount of unnecessary expense is avoided in the transportation and distribution of heavy bottles, water, ice and transportation cases; and the user of the milk economizes in ice, household ice chest. In this method, besides the secured advantages of germ destruction and elimination of putrid products, the disadvantages of chemical change in the milk, added infection, and inexpertness in modifications for infant use, are more or less avoided. It will be understood that so far as concentration of the milk goes, I prefer not to concentrate more than is required to meet the dietary needs of infants of one year old. If dehydrated to that degree, it is easily diluted for younger infants; but it is best not to heat or dehydrate milk for in fant feeding more than is necessary. he invention however applies to the complete dehydration of milk under. any known rocess.

The conveying and distributing container is formed so as to enable a complete and convenient cleansing of the whole interior of the container, preparatory to its repeated use; The container being of glass an having calibrating marks Tm its exterior is. helpful to the user in showing the amount of milk remaining in the container its macro-. scopic purity and' the amount that should be decanted at each pouring without unnecessary loss in using the milk. With the use of this container, there is a minimum and storage space in the to market in sheetcork i possibility of aerial infection during the ad- 1 mixing of the concentrated milk with suitable amounts of the warm sterilized diluting water used in preparing the milk for immediate feedings.

In carrying out the method herein claimed, the use of a suitable closure for the final conveying and distributing container is an important matter, inasmuch as the ordinary cardboard closure-disk used does not prevent bacteria from growing thru or passing the circumferential edges of the closure disk into the milk. In transporting and distributing milk for infants, I prefer a container having a relatively small pouring orifice that can be conveniently closed with a cork stopper of moderate size and cost.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 represents" partly in section, such a container; while Fig. Zrepresents in section the upper part of a container having another type of closure that answers well for a milk container or larger size for general family use. Both of these closures act well in the process of pasteurizing the milk in the containers of which they are a part. In both there is I eflected a compressed sealing at or near to' the top of the closure; the first by an outwardly expansible pressure of the inserted cork stopper against the glass lip; and the latter, by a downward compression of the metallic protecting and sealing cap of the closure. In both, the pouring surfaces are protected from infection before, during and after the pasteurization of the milk while in the container.

In Fig. 1, the reference character 1 represents the preferred type of container for use in carrying out my method. It has the rounded bottom 2,'the calibration marks 3, the pouring surface and lip 4, and the cork stopper 5, the figure. shows also the parafiine coating 6, and the metallic flexible capsule 6. In Fig. 2, 7 is the upper part of a container for which I have already received patents. It has the rigid metallic compression covercap 8, which has lugs 9 that-engage with the glass lugs 10 of the container, and the pouring surface 11 of the lip. 12 is a glass annular sealing ring and guide for the skirt part of the cap 8. In operating this device the closure disk 13, is compressed strongly down upon the top of the pouring edge of the lip 11. In a container of this character for general family use, an erect position .for the container is not specially objectionable because of infrequent pourings from it, and because moderate infections in such general family use may be considered of negligible importance. Hence such a container may have a horizontal bottom; -but in case of infant feeding with frequent small pourings from the container, the rounded form of its bottom encourages a tight replacement of the eork stopper. If

milk is taken intermittently fronna large bottle of unconoentrated milk, the possibilities of its infection in successive pourings, is greater than from the smaller corked container of concentrated milk. Furthermore, the old time practice of preparing 'whole milk and bottling it in the numerous feeding bottles needed for a full days use of an infant, and their household pasteurization, is a defective practice because of the difliculty of securing effective pasteurizations by the general public, and adquately refrigerating the prepared milk in so many bottles. Furthermore, if milk is not prevented from undergoing low temperature fermentatat-ions prior to its pasteurization, the accumulation of objectionable ferment products in the milk is not prevented, or the elimination of such contaminants is' not secured inmilk by ordinary household pasteurization. 'The user of the milk treated by my method, is assured of better sanitary as well as hygiene value than when milk is treated by older methods.

What I claim as new is:

1. The method herein described, which consists in steps: (1) producing milk in at least a relatively cleanly manner, (2) modifying the milk in a manner to make the milk more suitable for infant feeding, (3) heating, and eliminating volatile diffusive putrefactive contaminants from the milk, (4) placing the milk in a glass container having a hermetically possible closure-seal and a pouring surface, (5) hermetically sealing the closure, and protecting the pouring surface from infection, (6) subjecting the container and its contained milk to a pasteurizing heat, (7 cooling the pasteurized milk at time below 40 F., said 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th steps being efi'ectuated at a place sufficiently near to the point of production of the milk to secure the delivery of the milk at the place of treatment before the milk has undergone fermentation, and (8) transporting the milk to market and delivering it at substantially the temperature to which it has been cooled.

2. The method herein described, which consists in condensing an admixture of milk anda modifying constituent, eliminating putrefactive contaminants from the admixture, hermetically sealing the condensed admixture in a container, refrigerating the condensed milk and shipping the same to market while retaining it in its refrigerated condition,

3. The method herein described, which consists in, heating, partly dehydrating and eliminating contained putrefactive volatile matters from milk under the influence of a 5th, 6th

a temperaa partial vacuum exhaust, any fermentation its; treatment, sealing the Hulk m a container g 1 reemaei having a removable and replaceable closure products from and dehydrating the milk, 20 entirely separable from the container, and hermetically encasing the milk, pasteurizing subjecting the container, including its clothe milk, and holding the pasteurized milk sure, and the contents of the container to a at a temperature of a degree such as will maintained temperture of sufiicient intensity inhibit substantially all bacterial growth in to prevent obvious fermentation in the milk the milk. 25 for at least 86-hours. 6. The method herein described, which 4. As an article of commerce, a bottle of consists in preventing proliferation of partly. dehydrated modified pasteurized milk, germs in milk, eliminating bacterial prodthat is free from putrefactive volatile conucts from the milk that have originated outstituents and live so-called pathogenic bacside of the milk, adding a casein-free mat- 30 teria, and that is in a state of preservative ter to the milk capableof giving fiocculent temperature of a degree such as will inhibit character to the casein in the milk in its co substantially all bacterial growth in the agulation, dehydrating and pasteurizing the milk. 'milk, and preventing decomposition and 5. lhe method herein described, which other degrading changes in the milk, said 35 consists in modifying cows milk to an apmilk being modified in relative similitude proximation to human milk, coincidently to human milk.

heating and exhausting volatile ferment W W EWSE WARE KE'E'CHEN. 

